Organisation-Self Alignment Model

Ok, not going profess to be an expert on this subject but let me just try to explain what this whole MBA-ish matrix is about. Its based on personal experience gathered from 2-3 years by being in various different organisations ranging from a military organisation to private for-profit organisation to a voluntary student organisation.

On the whole, this is what I summarise from observing people working in different organisations and what motivates them. It's also a kind of guide for anyone who wants to lead to understand what kind of people he/she may be expected to face and what to do about it. Basically, the x-axis represents benefit/detriment to the organisation and the y-axis represent benefit/detriment to the person. Hence, the 4 quadrants represent win-lose type of scenarios for people working in an organisation.

Thus, the four quadrants in detail represent:

1. Self-Interest (Personal self benefit at the expense of organisation) -- This is quite a common occurrence and I've observed it most in student organisations. In some sense, this is a result of a lot of students' need for immediate gratification for their efforts and in the cases that they do not see results fast enough, these people will cease their efforts for the organisation or worse still, do things which harm the organisation.
2. Alignment (Win-win for person as well as organisation) -- This is the optimal case where there is a synergy between what the person is doing for the organisation and how that helps to improve him/her. This stems from an alignment between the person and organisational vision and is the only substainable way for both to grow.
3. Conflict (Clash between qualities of person and organisation) -- This is rarer than having people in the Self Interest Quadrant but still may occur from a total mismatch between the person and organisation due to perhaps flawed or hasty selection process.
4. Self Sacrifice (Organisational benefit at expense of self) -- To some extent, this can be viewed as an individual with such strong personal conviction to a cause that he/she takes the proverbial hit for the greater good. It is great for organisations to find such dedication but may not be substainable in long run as people can burn out in such a manner.

Now, these are the actions which I feel leaders can take after they have identified who fits where:

1. Remove - People in the conflict quadrant are cancerous to both themselves and the organisation. It may not necessarily be a personality issue, merely a mismatch of interests so it would be best for these folks to be advised to find greener pastures.
2. Realign - Majority of people may fall in the Self Interest or Self Sacrifice quadrants. For those in the organisation for Self Interest, attempts can be made for them to see the importance of working with the organisation to achieve the common goal. This would move them to the Alignment quadrant, else they may have to leave before they create team morale issues. For those in the Self Sacrifice quadrant, leaders should help them to help themselves also in the line of their work and find self-betterment from what they do. This would prevent them from wearing out in the long run. These people are much easier to move into Alignment.
3. Reaffirm - If your organisation already has folks in the Alignment quadrant, good for you! But still, leaders have to make sure that these people are continuously advancing both themselves and the organisation. These are the best people to also start to guide and motivate others and should be groomed into future leaders.
   

Hope that I've managed to share something with all of you out there and drop me a note if you have (or not!).

Have fun over the weekend!

(PS: Can't seem to place a large enough image of the graph here but you can click on the graph to enlarge if you need to.)